[...] 50 years ago she was a pre-teen, sleeping on the porch to escape the oppressive heat, awakening to see a sky that glowed unnaturally.In the days that followed, he would witness — and take part in — an epic eruption of violence that still reverberates in his life and the life of this city.Five days of violence would leave 33 blacks and 10 whites dead, and more than 1,400 buildings burned.[...] the men and women who lived through the riots are getting older, and most doubt they will live to see Detroit reclaim its former glory, when its very name was synonymous with American know-how and industry.Buffalo, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, preceded it; in the course of the summer, more than 150 cases of civil unrest erupted across the United States.Detroit's started after a July 23 police raid on an illegal after-hours' club — a "blind pig" — at 12th and Clairmount.Many in the community blamed frustrations blacks felt toward the mostly white police, and city policies that pushed families into aging and over-crowded neighborhoods.When Gerard Townsend got off the bus that night, he stumbled into the immediate aftermath of the blind pig raid.People were running around with clothes in their hands, TVs and all kinds of stuff.There were reports of snipers firing on law enforcement, the National Guard and even firefighters from rooftops and other secreted spots.After the riot, it looked like a war zone and the burnt smell still lingered.Since my mother didn't drive it was nice having everything in walking distance.[...] it was Detroiters hurting themselves, she said.Within a decade of the riot, the car plants that provided jobs and helped keep the city running were hiring fewer people.The population is leveling out at around 670,000 people and families are taking advantage of special home buying programs through the city's land bank.Duggan said many of those decisions were "rooted in racial discrimination" and included forcing poor black residents into ever smaller areas where housing stock already was aging or substandard.Loans backed by the federal government allowed whites to buy homes in the suburbs in the years leading up to 1967.[...] some who lived through the riots say any progress will not wipe away their distress in those five days of violence, and in the 50 years that followed.What happens when you go through a war? A lot of people come out with post-traumatic stress disorder.